The Harmonized World Soil Database version 2.0 (HWSD v2.0) is a unique global soil inventory providing information on the morphological, chemical and physical properties of soils at approximately 1 km resolution. Its main objective is to serve as a basis for prospective studies on agro-ecological zoning, food security and climate change.

The Harmonized World Soil Database (HWSD) was established in 2008 by the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and FAO, and in partnership with International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC), the European Soil Bureau Network (ESBN) and the Institute for Soil Sciences Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The data entry and harmonization within a Geographic Information System (GIS) was carried out at IIASA, with verification of the database undertaken by all partners. HWSD was then updated in 2013 (HWSD v1.2) and in 2023 (HWSD v2.0).

This updated version (HWSD v2.0) is built on the previous versions of HWSD with several improvements on (i) the data source that now includes several national soil databases, (ii) an enhanced number of soil attributes available for seven soil depth layers, instead of two in HWSD v1.2, and (iii) a common soil reference for all soil units (FAO1990 and the World Reference Base for Soil Resources). This contributes to a further harmonization of the database.

The GIS raster image file is linked to the soil attribute database. The HWSD v2.0 soil attribute database provides information on the soil unit composition for each of the near 30 000 soil association mapping units. The HWSD v2.0 Viewer, provided with the database, creates this link automatically and provides direct access to the soil attribute data and the soil association information.

Note: A tutorial for accessing HWSD ver. 2.0 using R (prepared by David Rossiter, June 2023) has been added as an 'associated resource' (NOTE: Needs the SQLite version of HWSD v2 as provided below).